Research on Transformative Aesthetics

House 1, R. 215, 216, 317, 308, Luisenstr. 56, 10117 Berlin

What’s planned…

This summer we will commence a larger project on art in the city. Theorizing on its role in public live and collecting data on the impact of some central Berlin examples.

What we do…

At the ARTS AND MINDS LAB we have one central research question that we approach from different perspectives and disciplines of the cognitive sciences and philosophy: how do the arts (architecture, images, media) and Art transform our minds? We give emphasis to 4EA and predictive processing theories of the mind and the role affect and aesthetic emotions to explain the impact of different media and the power of art.

We research the influence of architecture and urban design on our well-being, the impact of visual media and film on how we perceive and think, and generally the potential of artworks to transform our worlds and to introduce us to new ways of world-making. We employ methods from the 4EA cognitive sciences (include philosophy, anthropology, ….. psychology, neuroscience) but also use AI as a heuristic method and include design disciplines as well as artists in our Lab.

What’s new…

  • Corinna Kühnapfel will present at the IAEA joint research of the ART*IS consortium on the impact of neighborhood galleries on attitudes. See here.

  • Joerg Fingerhut will be a guest professor at the Department for Philosophy at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin starting April 2024.

  • In October 2023 Corinna Kühnapfel joined our team as a Postdoc. Read more about her interests and academic background here.

Where we are…

History

The current lab grew naturally out of a series of previous groups and started out as the “Consciousness, Emotions, Values” of the Einstein Visiting Fellow Jesse Prinz

Two of our projects are currently funded at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin. One is on the potential of art to transform us (funded by the EU). The other is on architecture and wellbeing (funded by DFG, BUA). This research has been going on since 2020. Since 2018, we also collaborate with the Research Group Neurourbanism at the Department of Psychiatry and Neurosciences | CCM at Charité University Medicine.